In response to WIRED’s questions on its two-phase cooling products, including whether the company planned to submit the chemicals for fast-track consideration under the administration’s new data center waiver, Chemours spokeswoman Cassie Olszewski said the company is “in the process of commercializing our two-phase immersion cooling fluids, which will require relevant regulatory approvals.”
“Our work in this area is focused on developing more sustainable and efficient cooling solutions that will allow data centers to consume less energy, water and footprint while effectively managing the increasing amount of heat generated by next-generation chips with higher processing power,” Olszewski said.
These chips could also be an important source of new chemicals. Schwer and Jonathan Kalmus-Katz, a lawyer with the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, both say the semiconductor industry, which produces the chips that provide computing power in data centers, would significantly benefit from the accelerated review process. The semiconductor manufacturing process uses Forever chemicals at many different points of production, including the critical photolithography process, which uses light to transfer patterns onto the surface of silicon wafers.
Schwer says that in his last few years working at EPA, the industry has submitted a large number of applications for new chemicals. Kalmus-Katz says semiconductor manufacturers are “the main drivers of new chemicals.”
He says, “The administration has this kind of AI-at-all-cost mentality, where you’re rushing to build more and more data centers and chip fabs without any meaningful plan to deal with the climate impacts, their natural resource impacts, and the toxic substances that are being used and released from these new facilities.”
The semiconductor industry is seeking changes to the EPA’s new-chemicals program this year, lobbying documents show. In March, Nancy Beck, the former policy director of an industry lobbyist group who now leads the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, the office that oversees new chemical reviews, met with representatives of SEMI, a global advocacy organization for the industry. According to emails obtained by WIRED through a Freedom of Information Act request, the meeting was initially held to discuss “the EPA’s approach to regulations on PFAS and other chemicals required for semiconductor manufacturing.” The emails show that Beck suggested during the meeting that the lobbying group issue a public comment in support of changes to the new chemicals program, which the group sent in a letter the following month. (“Trump EPA encourages stakeholders to submit and document their comments on proposed rules so we get a diversity of perspectives,” says EPA spokesperson Hirsch.)
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